Bitmine's increased staking pressure led to a surge in the number of ETH in the verification queue, extending the waiting period to 17 days.

PANews reported on January 3rd, citing Cointelegraph, that Bitmine, the Ethereum treasury company, has deposited another 82,560 ETH into the Ethereum staking system, bringing its total staked ETH to 544,064, worth approximately $1.62 billion at current prices. Due to Bitmine's recent accelerated staking, the Ethereum validator queue has now grown to approximately 977,000 ETH, with new validators expected to wait nearly 17 days, and over 113,000 ETH awaiting withdrawal. Ethereum network data shows that over 35.5 million ETH are currently staked, representing approximately 29% of the total supply, with an annualized staking yield of nearly 2.54%.